Addison's Diary: Iowa? ...is rife with imprecise information and some really useless bickering.  Below the fold I've put a blog post from a Board that should clue everyone in to the magnitude of the situation.

It's devastating.  A flood of such magnitude that there are simply no plans for it.

But this is also an incredible opportunity.  Please read on...

It smells like... vegetarian lust.

So I open up the City Pages (on the tubz) and am greeted with the saga of one FBI Special Agent Maureen E. Mazzola; doing her personal, oily best to lubricate the wheels of justice in a manner we were all so fond of - back when Director Hoover danced beneath a silver moon in his frillies and mascara.

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at "vegan potlucks" throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to "investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines."

When asked about his 'moderation' of the last Presidential Debate - the infamous Gotcha Debate - George Stephanopoulos quite clearly averred (in an interview with Michael Calderone, here) that:

"We asked tough but appropriate questions," Stephanopoulos told me by phone this afternoon. When I asked whether questions about flag pins or Bosnia are actually relevant to voters, he replied: "Absolutely." "The vote for the president," Stephanopoulos said, "is one of the most personal" decisions that someone makes. "When people make that choice, they take into account how candidates stand on the issues," he said, but also are concerned with "experience, character [and] credibility."

It doesn't matter if we win; those people are shit. How would you like to be a worthless white ni***r?

It doesn't seem that long ago I looked up at that sprightly, solid man as a six-year-old child, and gazed in awe across the vast expanse of his cherry-wood desk to report that I was, indeed, doing well.  It was a different time, and children were not allowed the luxury of feigned ignorance if they did not possess it.

My pediatrician - Oscar Janiger - owed his notoriety to what has become the common knowledge of today: that it was Albert Hofmann who discovered LSD, and spread its use throughout the world (true or not, as you like).

102 years old.  That, in itself, must have been an incredible trip for Dr. Hofmann.  At 56 I can't even imagine what 102 must feel like.  But yet today, as we all must, he died of a heart attack.

At first, I thought he'd been in a car crash.  He was an older man, in his early 70's, and we started talking about deer-hunting, there in the bookstore.  He'd asked me about a book, because he thought I worked there - I get that a lot in bookstores.  Fact is, I have owned three, and I still earn my living that way.

He had very level and only slightly rheumy eyes, a Paratrooper ball cap, two of his fingers sloppily bandaged together, and a fresh, four-inch, stitched up wound on his left temple.  His skin was exposed from his neck up and his wrists down, and there were so many colors...

Four shots.  Nuclear weapons tests.  1958.

Well, the first thing I should mention is that there really wasn't enough room.  It got kinda sweaty after awhile, too.

And oh!  ...she glittered in the night all purply and bejeweled.  Hair everywhere, and her voice filled the night...

I'll tell ya, folks; if you ever get the chance...

A fable...

Dear Congressman Davis:

I appreciate your apology - more than you realize, perhaps.  And yet it is not mine to accept.  In the final analysis, it is a matter in which you must accept the guidance and the mercy of Our Lord.  If I were a more perfect man I would take it gratefully, but I am not - any more than are you.  To accept your heartfelt and humble apology would be to place myself in a position superior to yours - and yet sir, we are the same: human, both of us, with human failings and human desires and both the drive and the folly with which we are endowed.

But in one regard I will offer you my hand and whatever assistance I may: to me, the matter is closed.

So in the wake of the 'bitter' remark, and all the furor it has caused, Senator Obama has more or less apologized (expressed a politicians regrets, that is).

In an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal, he has said:

Well look, if there - obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that. But the underlying truth of what I said remains, which is simply that people who have seen their way of life upended because of economic distress are frustrated and rightfully so.

I have finally managed to crystallize my position on the thorny matter of what to do about the situation in MI and FL.  Despite the reasonable-sounding solutions that have been broached, the utterly (if amusing) unreasonable 'solutions,' and even such artful and Solomon-like proposals as kos' 50-50, I've never really been satisfied with any of them.  But I was struck by the lightning bolt of clarity last night, whilst participating in the Diary MediaFreeze posted on the subject - to the tune of over 200 comments, but only three Recs.  Not to cheat, or to keep you in suspense, here is what I realized, and ultimately posted:

We are the party that believes in rules, and believes in enforcing them, or we are Republicans.

And this is why...

This tiresome meme of experience in a Presidential contender is just flat beginning to gripe my cookies.  Personally, I think it's a vastly overrated thing - in fact, my take on it is that the kind of experience under discussion in this campaign may very well be precisely what a thoughtful republic should strive to avoid.

We are at a crossroads in this nation.  And, as are all 'interesting times,' it is something we will only fully appreciate in retrospect:  as we now - in thoughtful retrospect - appreciate the past services of the greatest Presidents who have served us in the highest office that we offer.

Who were these Presidents, who served us faithfully and well?  And, more importantly, what was their experience?  Let's take a look...

Well well well...

So Judge Kessler - the US District Court judge who placed the phone number list held by Deborah Jeane Palfrey (the "DC Madam") under a restraining order, has lifted that restraining order:

"The List in question is the Defendant's personal property," wrote the judge, "and contains only a log of telephone numbers. It was neither seized by the Government when it searched the Defendant's residence in California, nor listed in the Indictment putting the Defendant on notice as to which items of her property were subject to forfeiture."

The judge concluded that the government had not satisfied the requirements of the forfeiture statute that would enable them to make the "extraordinary step of freezing the property of an individual, not yet convicted of any crime, and barring her from giving away that property."

Well, anyway, here's my response to the announcement that Governor Kaine will be giving the Democratic response to the State of the Uniion address.

I sent this off to the DNC a few minutes ago; link below.

If this has been Diaried, let me know, and I'll delete.

A Columbia, SC television station had this to report:

[Emphases mine]

I don't know if this is worth a Diary, in the eyes of whatever powers there be.  But nobody's talking about it - and they should be.  And I've sure as hell got one to burn for someone who's better than I am.

So this 16-year-old kid - this Farris Hassan, an American lad of immigrant parents - just gets off his ass, stows the fear in whatever baggage we try to lay on him for his egregious sin of inhabiting a body that isn't old enough to vote; and buys a one-way ticket to Iraq; to report on it for his school newspaper.  Holy crap.  I could shit gold and die poor.  And people say our kids are lazy, fat, and stupid.

There is injustice.  The governments of the West are dangerously secular (even if once approved in advance by the Almighty), and the Churches rail against the injustice they perceive; claiming Godliness, fundamentalism, and the literal application of God's Word to governance - as needsbe interpreted by the One True Church - are the only path to the greater good for the greatest number of souls.  The times are licentious and sinful; and we are sure to earn the righteous destruction of a wrathful Lord if we don't shape our worthless asses up right now.  The Last Days are upon us, and there isn't all that much time left to lead our fellows - lockstep - to the Path of Good: and so it is therefore excusable if the methods used to bring sinners to The Way are somewhat... extreme.

Sound familiar?  Well, no - because this is about the beginnings of the modern blogger, and the timeframe central to this part of my exposition is somewhere around a century or so before - right up to - the passage of the English Bill of Rights.  In 1689.  You talk about netroots...

Polls won't do it - no screen names are attached to the answers - but mojo will...

I'm sure we'd all be interested to know what everyone thinks about which 'senior administration official' has flipped.  And I'm equally as sure that each and every kossack is so sure s/he has it right, that bragging rights will be good for a year or two...  So I'm going to post 12 names as individual comments to this Diary, and all you have to do is leave a '4' for the name you think is talking to Fitzgerald.  Yes, a '4' - gimme a break.

I'm sure everyone would love to get on the record in an unambiguous fashion.  Give me a couple of minutes to get the names up, and then have at it.

So.  We've got a little problem here.  SCOTUS will be at least 5-4 in 2008, and possibly 6-3.  This assumes that Bush lasts until 2008 (we're certainly hoping not).  And the assumption that the problem is little, is grounded in the thought that we have taken the House and Senate back by 2008, if not 2006.  If we don't take the Presidency back by 2008 at the latest, all of the left-wing SCOTUS appointments will be up for grabs due to the old age of the Justices, and it'll probably be time to seriously consider leaving the country anyway.

The question is:  can we put the Supreme Court back into respectability; and do so relatively quickly?  You know - thoughtful, unpoliticized jurists, an agenda that somewhat involves the good of our citizens, impartiality... all that.  The answer is, manifestly, yes.  Flip me off...

On August 7th, this year, I posted a Diary entitled:  Poll: A POTUS election in 2008?  OK, OK, it was my first; and I'll confess I'm somewhat attached to it still... ;-)

In it, I posed the question:  "Will there be a POTUS election in 2008?"

With four choices ("I am 100% sure there will be."  "I am 65% sure there will be."  "I am 35% sure there will be."  "We're totally screwed."), and out of 167 respondents, the results - in order - were 59%, 26%, 5%, and 7%.  I'm re-posting the poll now, because I'd still really like to know what you all think.  Please keep reading past the flip...